TRUST: How to Connect with Integrity

blog Aug 11, 2019

It's hard to have a trusting heart and an open mind, yet we long to trust. If you lead a company, you must be the trustable one.

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TRUST: How to Connect with Integrity

It's hard to have a trusting heart and an open mind.

In our media-drenched world connection means eyeballs, clicks and "friends". In business, success means "more, bigger, faster, cheaper". Facts as we once knew them now have alternatives. Our once and future leaders crash to earth in epic tides of poor judgement.

And yet we long to trust.

If you lead a company, you must be the trustable one.

Here's the good news...in spite of every assault on trust our modern world can throw at us, what it takes to form deep connections with others remains unaltered. So why does trust seem so hard to come by? It's not that trustable behaviors are hard to master, It would however, be fair to say that they've gone out of style. So let's take a page from our grandparents book of manners. Here are three time-tested behaviors worth emulating.

Trustable #1: Go Slow

Instead of rushing through your too-much-on-the-plate day, force yourself to walk slowly, talk slowly, pause to think, observe and respond. Allow space for others to talk. Notice their body language. Look people in the eye. Be present.

Trustable #2: Care and Show It

I had a friend in high-school whose favorite saying was "who cares?" I was appalled by this phrase back then and I feel the same today. Let's make a list and check it twice of the things we care deeply about. Once you've got your list, ask yourself who besides you knows what's on it. These are your truths. Truth is trustable.

Trustable #3: Share Your Back-Story

Facebook, Instagram, Netflix and Pinterest do not a real life make. In real life, $^#! happens that changes us for better and for worse. In real life, we struggle, fail and get up again. And sometimes, around the camp-fires and fox holes of real life, we let down our guard and tell each other what's happening then and now. It's our true stories that have impact and connections for life. Maybe you have one or two true stories to share with someone or a group of someone's this week.

 

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